Tonight at the Blue Note, bass virtuoso Stanley Clarke teams up with Japanese jazz piano wiz Hiromi for an evening of duo that promises to be both explosive and intimate.

Stanley Clarke was among the first bassists in history to double on acoustic and electric bass with equal ferocity and was the first bassist ever to headline tours, selling out shows worldwide. Exploding into the jazz world in 1971, he soon landed jobs with famous bandleaders like Horace Silver, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Gil Evans, and Chick Corea, with whom he formed the seminal fusion group Return to Forever.

In addition to his extensive work with RTF, Clarke's other notable collaborations have included the Clarke/Duke Project with George Duke, The Superband with Larry Carlton and Billy Cobham, and projects with Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, Art Blakey, Paul McCartney, and Keith Richards. Of course, he has also worked with Hiromi, featuring her as a member of his trio in his 2009 release Jazz in the Garden.

Clarke has won literally every major award available to a bass player: Grammys, Emmys, every readers' poll out there, all the critics' polls, and numerous Gold and Platinum certifications. He garnered his most recent Grammy Awards for his 2010 album The Stanley Clarke Band and for Return to Forever's 2011 release Forever.

Global superstar jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara first mesmerized the jazz community with her 2003 Telarc debut Another Mind. The buzz started by the album spread all the way back to her native Japan, where Another Mind shipped over 100,000 units and received the Recording Industry Association of Japan's Jazz Album of the Year Award. The buzz continued to build through her subsequent releases Brain (2004), Spiral (2006), Time Control (2007), and Beyond Standard (2008), as she claimed awards for Jazzman of the Year, Pianist of the Year, and Album of the Year from Swing Journal Japan's Readers Poll.

Hiromi's output in recent years has been extensive as well: her latest releases include 2009's Duet with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke's Jazz in the Garden (2009), two live concert DVDs (2009), and a solo piano release titled Place to Be (2010). With her latest album Voice (2011), a trio project featuring bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Simon Phillips, Hiromi continues, as ever, to forge her own musical path.